Max Verstappen starts the 2024 F1 season with a win in Bahrain

Max Verstappen won the first race of the Formula 1 2024 season, the Bahrain Grand Prix, in a dominant manner on Saturday. The three-time world champion was supreme in the Red Bull car from start to finish at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir. Teammate Sergio Pérez from Mexico finished second, and Spaniard Carlos Sainz third.

It is the 55th GP victory for Verstappen, who started his tenth season in Formula 1. The 26-year-old Limburger started from pole position in Bahrain, the 33rd pole position of his career.

Verstappen was off to a good start and immediately took a lead of more than a second over Charles Leclerc, who was next to him on the starting grid. The Ferrari driver was thus unable to take advantage of the Dutchman's slipstream after the first lap. George Russell overtook Leclerc in the Mercedes but failed to get closer to Verstappen.

The world champion steadily increased his lead and, after ten laps, had an eight-second margin over the Briton. Verstappen continued on his first set of soft tires for a long time and, after the pit stop, was much faster on the hard tires than the rest of the field. Teammate Pérez had meanwhile moved up to second place, and Sainz had overtaken his teammate Leclerc and Russell.

While most teams encountered problems in the first race, Red Bull seemed to have everything in order with the RB20 car. Mercedes had issues with the battery, while Ferrari, Leclerc in particular, initially lacked balance in the car. Verstappen had a gap of almost twenty seconds on Pérez and was able to attack the fastest lap on new soft tires after the second pit stop. That earned him an extra World Championship point with a lap 1.4 seconds faster than the entire competition.

Leclerc recovered in the second part of the race and took advantage of Russell's mistake to take over fourth place. The Ferraris thus trumped competitors Mercedes and McLaren, Russell finished fifth, and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton only seventh. But they know that the gap with the Red Bulls, and certainly Verstappen's, is still huge in the race.